Revelations
by Carbo
Summary: AJ and Mary Jane look back at AJ's bloody past on New Years Eve.


Disclaimer: All the characters in this story belong to me, please do not use them without my permission. Same goes for the story itself. Brimstone however does not belong to me.  
  
Revelations  
  
AJ watched the drunken and noisy crowd on the Brimstone square from a slight distance, sitting on a stone pedestal his back against a monument for some late president, a bottle of his favorite liquor in his other hand and a half smoked cigarette in the other. It was already past midnight and the main fireworks had already ended, although every now and then a single lonely rocket would lighten the sky for a moment, making the broken pieces of glass that littered the square and street, glitter in beautiful reds and greens.  
  
Unlike usually, he wasn't in the crowd, partying away with his friends like an animal. Instead he had chosen to drink alone, away from all the fun and chaos he always loved so much. Taking another sip from his bottle he stared into the crowd, eyes blank, dark, almost devoid of any emotion, almost.  
  
He hated this day, he truly hated it. And for more reasons than one. He hated the memories it always brought back and the misery that always had to come with it. And besides, what was there to celebrate in the beginning of a new year. To him at least, absolutely nothing.  
  
A young woman with blond long hair, piercing blue eyes, white fur and a yellow streak that looks like a lightning bolt running across her left eye, walked slowly towards the monument. AJ didn't bother to look at her just kept his eyes on the partiers.  
  
She hopped onto the pedestal with catlike agility and sat down beside him without a word, letting her legs dangle from the edge.  
  
AJ still wouldn't look at her, nor did she look at him. For a minute or two they just sat there silent watching the crowd, like AJ had been doing for the last two hours.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She asked glancing at him momentarily with her dark blue eyes, her neutral low voice braking the silence between them.  
  
Without looking at her he rested his head back against the cool stone, blew the strands of pitch black hair off his face and answered:  
  
"What are any of us doing here?" He said it almost casually, but Mary Jane could detect a darker tone to his voice. She could also sense he was avoiding her question, so she turned to look at him, waiting for a real answer.  
  
He turned his face to her, looked her in the eye with his own crimson ones, then turned away again, knowing she was not content with the answer he'd given her.  
  
"I'm celebrating. Celebrating the loss of a person that is gone forever." He said over dramatically, while raising the bottle of liquor and taking a sip. You could see he was drunk.  
  
Mary Jane digested his words for a moment, looking for a second meaning. AJ had never really cared much for other people. She figured it out quickly.  
  
"You?" She asked quietly.  
  
He rolled his head again to face her and smiled darkly. "That's right professor. Me."  
  
He took a short moment of silence, took a swig form the cigarette, then butted it and smiled.  
  
"Exactly this day, 4 years ago, Axel Justice, ceased to exist." He emphasized his words with a wave of his hand. "His whole life stopped when his family was killed in their beds in the middle of the night, in a small town in Marisia." He talked in a casual voice, seeming almost amused with his destiny.  
  
"The officials accused Axel of the murder, and he was later arrested, trialed and convicted of the felony.  
  
He however escaped shortly after the trial, with a help of a friend, only to end up in a car crash on his way to a hideout in the mountains. He got out of the crash almost without a scratch, but his friend burned alive, trapped in the crushed vesicle." Not a flicker of emotions passed on his face as he said this.  
  
"The police didn't know about the friend, and since the body was so badly burned they couldn't identify it, they concluded it had to be me. And so, here I am." He finished and turned to look at her. She didn't say anything, but like always she didn't have to. To AJ' surprise, she smiled, a hardly visible, small smile, but a smile all the same. In all the time he'd known her, she'd only smiled twice, and never at him. And somehow, for some unexplainable reason it touched something inside him, something he was sure didn't exist.  
  
"You've been through something similar haven't you." He stated, looking at her, staring in those blue deep pools, that seemed to have no end. And that gave away nothing, and everything at the same time.  
  
"Yes." She answered. Quiet, controlled, still gazing at him. They stared at each other for a moment, a feeling of understanding passing between them, before they both turned away again and fixed their gaze on the dissolving crowd.  
  
~End~ 


End file.
